China: English to be removed as a graded core subject?

From business and academia to social media and entertainment — English is considered the dominant global language. One in five people on Earth actively uses this lingua franca. In China , a mathematics professor specializing in vector algebra is now challenging this dominance in no uncertain terms. Tang Jiafeng believes that English should be abolished as a core subject in elementary schools, secondary schools and universities.

Tang is convinced that no other country in the world has placed as much importance on English as China has.

"Our children desperately begin learning English even before they have properly mastered their native language. Yet we are a civilization that dates back thousands of years. English is just a tool. It's enough to be able to use it. The tradition of revering and emulating Western cultures must come to an end," Tang says in social media.

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English is considered difficult in China, since the Chinese language does not use an alphabetic script. It is a required subject starting in third grade. It is graded on par with Chinese and mathematics on the entrance exam for secondary schools, the central exam after 9th grade, and the high school graduation exam. A maximum of 150 points can be earned on the latter.

"How many resources and how much time do our children, parents and schools invest in a subject that is completely irrelevant to the majority of people in their future professional lives?" the mathematician asks, explaining his position.

He became well-known because many of his students achieved full scores on state math exams; in the class of 2011, six students from a single class did so.

"Why cram for English when artificial intelligence can translate everything in seconds?" comments a user from Beijing.